The crime scene expert who went to the house where footballer Senzo Meyiwa was murdered, once again took to the stand on Wednesday after having testified before in the old trial.
Last year in April, Sgt Thabo Mosia, a police officer who collected evidence at the scene, was the first witness on the first official day of the trial in the Pretoria high court.
Mosia was attached to the criminal records centre in Springs.
Mosia told the court he preferred to give his evidence in chief in English and would change (to Sotho) during cross-examination.
Last year a Sotho interpreter had to be called in after judge Tshifhiwa Maumela noticed during cross-examination that Mosia was not properly understanding questions put to him.
As he began, the court heard that Mosia, who was a sergeant and got promoted this year on June 1 to warrant officer is now attached to a local criminal record centre in Secunda stationed at Standerton satellite service point.
Mosia testified that on October 26 2014, he was on standby duty as the crime scene investigator responsible for Vosloorus SAPS policing area, Zonkizizwe, Reiger Park and Dorn park when he received a call about 11:45am to attend an alleged crime scene in Vosloorus.
“The requester identified himself as Brig [Philani] Ndlovu, he reported a robbery crime scene,” he said.
Mosia said Ndlovu did not furnish him with the house address and testified that from his home, he went to Vosloorus police station and inquired about the crime scene.
When he headed to Botshelong Hospital, he met a police van which took him to the crime scene.
He said about 12.20am on October 27, he arrived at the house where he met Ndlovu who pointed out to him certain things which he photographed.
“The police tape was placed across the open gate of the front wall. I introduced myself to the police members who were on the scene and asked for information regarding the crime scene,” Mosia said.
Mosia said he conducted a walk-through and observed on the floor that there was a walking stick and a black and white hat.
“There was a bullet fragment — it's a bullet jacket also on the floor. I also marked the damaged door inside with an arrow sticker, I then contacted my duty officer, describing the crime scene and he suggested that we use the provincial crime scene management,” he said.
However, Mosia said despite this he decided to proceed with the crime scene to protect the evidence on the floor.
“I took photographs of the house, the exhibits and where they were found. I packaged the exhibits and waited for the task team to join me so we could process the crime scene together,” he said.
While waiting for the crime scene managers, he received a call to attend to a business robbery in Zonkizizwe and an arson case, also in Vosloorus, leaving the scene about 1.30am.
“I reported to the senior officer on the scene who was Brig Ndlovu and I handed over the crime scene to them and went to attend the crime scenes in Vosloorus and Zonkizizwe,” he said.
Mosia said the evidence he had collected was with him in the car.
Estimating his arrival back at the crime scene at 6am, he said the provincial crime scene managers later arrived with an officer whom he referred to as the “late Captain Mathebula” where a debriefing was held before they started processing the scene.
Mosia said he was responsible for collecting, packaging and processing all the evidence while warrant officer Thobeka Mhlahlo was responsible for photographing the crime scene and all the exhibits he collected.
He said after completing the investigation, he took all the crime scene exhibits to his office in Springs local criminal record centre.
Going through pictures he explained how he collected the evidence using dry and wet swabs.
The trial continues on Thursday.
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